Most people would probably like to be remembered for something that is important to them and how they view themselves as a person. The results of the U.K. survey are somewhat surprising, since the stereotypical Brit is a reserved person in American popular culture. However, it makes sense that people want to be remembered for humor.

Laughter also makes other people around us laugh. It makes others happy. There are far worse things than being remembered for making others feel good.

No matter what you want to be remembered for, a sense of humor or something else, you cannot always choose how people will remember you.

An estate planning attorney can advise you on creating an estate plan to meet your unique circumstances.

There is a trend for people to live longer, if they survive into adulthood. That usually means a longer time spent in retirement than in previous generations.

The most obvious thing people need to do differently, is to save more money for retirement. Everyone understands that the longer you live in retirement, the more money you need to pay your expenses.

The less obvious thing is that estate planning, in many cases, needs to be done in a slightly different way.

It becomes more important to have an estate plan in place to make sure that you have a way to preserve assets for future generations. However, estate planning also needs to be more flexible because the longer a person lives, the greater the chances that unexpected contingencies will occur.

Estate planning needs to be done in a way that any contingencies do not cripple the plan or the ability of a retired person to meet his or her needs.

An estate planning attorney can help guide you create an estate plan that fits your unique circumstances, including retirement.

It was previously expected that part of the tax reform effort would include a repeal of the estate tax. However, it is now uncertain whether that will remain on the table. It was also expected that repealing Obamacare would give Congress approximately a trillion dollars in total savings with which they could partially fund tax cuts. The repeal has not yet occurred.

With those savings not available, either some tax cuts need to be scrapped, revenue needs to be raised elsewhere or the federal deficit needs to be allowed to greatly increase.

If Republicans cannot agree on which of those things to do, they will need to compromise with Democrats to get anything passed and dropping the estate tax repeal is a potential olive branch.

Even though the focus has shifted to tax reform, nothing might actually be done for a long time.

The last major overhaul of the tax system was the Tax Reform Act of 1986. That legislation only passed after a long multiyear process, despite bipartisan support for the reforms.

04/25/2017

The Baby Boomers are about to transfer a lot of wealth, and planning for it would be a good idea.

If it is not managed properly, the possibility of a great wealth transfer of trillions of dollars from the Baby Boomers to their heirs, could become a lost opportunity, according to Private Wealth in "Open Channels."

It is believed it will be the largest such transfer of wealth between generations ever seen. This leads to real concerns whether younger generations are prepared to handle the wealth.

Making sure that inherited wealth is not wasted, is something that must be done on a family by family basis. The younger generations need to be adequately prepared to manage inheritances from Day One.

Two basic things are needed to make sure that things go smoothly.

The first is that baby boomers with wealth need to have solid estate plans that appropriately detail how the wealth is to be transferred to heirs. The second is that heirs need to be educated about what to do with that wealth.

All of this starts by talking to heirs about what they will receive and how it should be handled. It also requires making sure that heirs have the appropriate experts to turn to for advice, if needed.

An estate planning attorney can help guide you on any transfer of wealth.

04/24/2017

Some people believe that we may be on the verge of obtaining the knowledge to achieve eternal life. However, that would result in some changes in our world and society, according to the New Yorker in "Silicon Valley's Quest To Live Forever."

Faced as we all are with our own mortality, some wealthy individuals in Silicon Valley are working to create eternal life, based on advances made in modern science and medicine.

While most independent experts are far from convinced that we are anywhere close to living forever, due to the way human cells are naturally damaged during division, it is interesting to think about what the implications of eternal life could be for estate planning.

If the wealthy could live forever, then how would they transfer their wealth to younger generations of their family? Would they even have families? If they did not have families and they died from an accident that they could not save themselves from, what would happen to their wealth?

This particular claim against the estate was brought by four former business associates of Jackson's when they sued in 2014. They claimed that in 2006 three of them met with the singer in a Tokyo hotel room. They said that he gave them all shares in his business to reward them for their loyalty.

This particular case appears to have been an easy one for the judge to decide.

The business associates had never reduced the alleged agreement with Jackson to writing and they never made an attempt to claim any shares in his business while he was alive. The lack of a written agreement, made it easy for the judge to dismiss their claims and to decide that the case was frivolous. The judge also ruled that they filed the case too late.

In the case discussed in the article, two men had lived together in Florida for 42 years. They were legally married in New York in 2012. A year later, one of them passed away in Florida.

Since Florida did not recognize same-sex marriage, the death certificate listed the deceased man as single. After the Supreme Court's decision, the surviving spouse requested that the death certificate be reissued to list the deceased as married at the time of death.

The state of Florida refused to reissue the death certificate without a specific court order to do so for each death certificate. A federal judge has ruled against the state and ordered that it must reissue all death certificates to list same-sex spouses for couples who were legally married before Supreme Court's decision.

While this case turned out well for those affected, it illustrates that same-sex couples cannot necessarily rely on proper enforcement of their marriage rights.

An estate planning attorney can advise you on creating an estate plan that meets your unique circumstances.

Estate planning can make people think about what will happen after they pass away. For many people, that leads to think about the act of death itself, and they are often deathly afraid of it. Unfortunately, that causes some people to delay estate planning for too long and they pass away without estate plans.

The “least afraid” list includes those people who are extremely religious and interestingly enough atheists. The analysis shows that those on the “most afraid” of death list are those people who are mildly religious and who may only join a religious group for social and economic reasons.

Of course, people cannot act on this information to make themselves have less fear of death. It is difficult to force yourself to be more or less religious than you are.

However, those who have put off estate planning due to a fear of passing away, can use this information to understand that their fear is normal.

An estate planning attorney can guide you through the process of designing an estate plan that fits your unique circumstances.

Prior to marrying, Echevarria and her husband picked out a home in Miami Beach that he purchased in his name alone. A prenuptial agreement was signed which included a provision that upon his death, ownership of the house would be transferred to her.

The two announced that they were separating in 2015, but according to Echevarria, they continued to live together until his death in 2016.

His estate went to his two sons from a previous relationship. Echevarria claims they are attempting to seize the house as part of the estate.

It is not uncommon for stepparents and children to have disputes over an estate.

An estate planning attorney can advise you on creating an estate plan that meets your specific needs.